22 March 2011

In reading and understanding Proverbs, it is sometimes helpful to preface a verse by mentally supplying "Other things being equal," or "Generally speaking." For instance: "[Other things being equal,] a soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger" (Proverbs 15:1). Without that understanding, for instance, John 18:19-23 is a contradiction.

No one (I hope!) will ever publish a version of Proverbs with these additions, because that would spoil the particular beauty of the book. After all, the point of a proverb is to make a point pithily and memorably. Brevity is a necessity. No one who reads wisely reads as if he had a legal contract or a magic spell book in his hands. It's the particular genius of a proverb to make a categorical assertion as if it were a statement of universal truth — but its success depends on the reader realizing that it is usually not intended as any such thing.

Which brings us to posts on blogs.

I see posts as short-form literature, as a rule. I don't go to blogs for long studies. Some very popular blogs do regularly feature what seem to me to be very, very, very long posts. They lose me, frankly. I don't bother with them. There, I've said it. If I want a study, I'll buy a book or consult an academic journal. The closest a blog will come to that for me will be if it posts a series on a topic — a series of mid-sized or shorter posts.

I think most people understand this, though clearly some do not. For instance, I wrote a post on depression last week. I've also done one on marriage. And another on parenting. And one on pastoral ministry. And on and on and on.

Now, could anyone fairly read any of those posts, and think I was setting out, in 800-1600 words (or whatever) to say everything that could be said on the subject? On any of those subjects?

That would be a fair approach to a post titled "Everything that can possibly be said about _____." I don't think any of us has written one like that. The first comment would point out something we missed, and all would be lost.

As it is the nature of a proverb to make compress some truth about a subject and make it unforgettable, so it is the design of a post to examine one or two aspects of a subject. If it's a good post (as I judge posty goodness, anyway), it will do it informatively, memorably, and perhaps a bit provocatively.

But anyone who sets to at the post to complain about all the things the post didn't say has quite a long row to hoe. But in that, it's a bit like this post about Jesus' teachings on truth and love. We noted that when Jesus said disciples would be known by their love, His omission of other marks was not in itself meaningful. It just meant He set out to make that point, not to exclude everything else He'd already said (and would say) on matters of faith and truth and obedience.

Most of you don't need me to point this out.

But in cases where we do need to remind some folks who pass by, perhaps now Phil or Frank or I can just link to this post. As a reminder.

Actually, what you really need to do is you say "Yeah, but what if you really want a longer study?", and then when I tell you I dealt with that in the post, you insist your read the post 47 times and I never got anywhere near that topic.

Then you tell me I'm mean, and this is why most of Christendom is curled up in corners, weeping, wounded by the metas of this blog.

Dan, this posts explains so much about emergents. A blog post can't possibly represent all the nuances of their views. And if it takes an entire blog post to misrepresent a single, concise proverb, just imagine how much room it takes to redo the Gospels.

I do think that there is a single exception to what you are saying, and that is the "internet sensation."

Last year, in the midst of the Ergun Caner kerfluffle, I wrote an essay on the problem of deceptive self-marketing. It was insanely long. I just checked, and the whole thing came in at 9000 words. In other words, it was somewhere between a short book and a long pamphlet. It was so long that I posted it in five sections - but I posted them all at the same time linked to one another. I figured "Who cares? No one reads my blog anyway!"

The post was linked far and wide, and in total it received 70 comments. (There had been 3 comments on my blog prior to that time - not 3 on a post, but 3 in the history of the blog.)

Anyhow, I agree with what you're saying here, but there are times. I think a week ago you could have posted 20,000 words on Rob Bell and had your highest-read post of the year.

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